When Novak Djokovic gets to the final of the Australian Open, he wins it. When he takes the first set against Andy Murray, he wins it. Both of those familiar scenarios played out in the 2015 edition of the season’s first major, and, in a sad denouement, there was little the Scot could do to stop a player who could remain No1 in the world for the rest of the year, perhaps longer.

Djokovic won his fifth title on the Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night, embarrassing Murray at the end of a match that was always enthralling, mostly terrific but occasionally awful over three hours and 39 minutes.

The Serb owns Melbourne and, for now, he owns Murray, who moves from No6 to No4 in the rankings but would have slotted in at No3 had he won.

Djokovic won 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0, but, of the 24 matches and five grand slam deciders they have now played against each other over nearly nine years (Djokovic leads 16-8 overall, 3-2 in slam finals), few can have featured as much simultaneous gold and dross as this final, idiocy following excellence like a lost puppy.

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Murray blew more important points than Djokovic, especially in the third set, and at the end, he was beating himself up as much as the Serb was.

The Scot was spent and disappointed that the sometimes brilliant tennis he had rediscovered over the past fortnight deserted him at precisely the wrong time. Yet, as is increasingly the case as he comes to terms with the vagaries of his sport, Murray found the right words to put it in context.

“Success is being happy,” he said. “It’s not about winning every single tournament you play, because that isn’t possible. You want to win every event, that’s for sure. That’s what you prepare for. But no one in the history of this game has ever done that. You prepare as best as you can. I would rather lose in the final and be happy than win the final and go home and be miserable. So I try to enjoy my tennis more right now than I probably did at the beginning of my career – and everything that goes into it.

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“Obviously I would have liked to have won today, but you can’t win all of them, unfortunately. I’m happy with everything that I put into the event. I couldn’t have done anything more to give myself a better chance to win. So I can’t be disappointed with that because I gave my best effort. That’s all I think you can ask of any athlete: to give themselves the best chance of winning. And I did that. I just wish I could have done a little bit better in the third set.”

In some ways, they were statistically close. Djokovic took nine of 16 break opportunities, Murray five of 12; the winner hit eight aces, the loser 10; Djokovic had fewer unforced errors, 40, than Murray, but only by nine. And when the total points were tallied, he had outscored the Scot by 136-118. But this was a match where the numbers were almost secondary to the narrative unfolding before us.

Djokovic fell twice in the first set, hurting his right thumb and then hobbling on an ankle that looked ready at one point to totally collapse – although Murray did not look convinced, especially when the Serb recovered so well each time. The most elastic man in sport briefly moved with all the certainty of a drunk on rollerskates, only to be sprinting like a spring lamb within a few minutes. Drama queens, eh?

There was also a brief invasion by a couple of demonstrators during a changeover in the second set which, in the context of a crazy night, faded from memory as quickly as it arrived.

It was long, a little bloody (with no recorded expletives of note to report), but the length of the struggle did not reflect the quality of the tennis, as it has in their previous encounters in Melbourne.

When they met for the first time at this tournament, in 2011, Murray froze as Djokovic wrapped up the final in three whizz-bang sets. The following year, the Scot pressed him much harder over four hours and 50 minutes in the semi-finals, and might have won had he not faded after fighting back from 2-5 down in the final set. In 2013, they were in the final, and, in a very good fight, Djokovic won a good four-setter in three hours and 19 minutes – precisely 20 minutes fewer than this time.

Yet here, the dominance looked more complete. Djokovic, below his best in beating Stan Wawrinka in a five-set semi-final on Friday night, regained his composure after occasional dips more convincingly than Murray did, taking the game away from him after trailing midway through the third set and winning 12 of the last 13 games in an irresistible finish.

The key for Murray was to keep Djokovic moving, to get him running sideways and backwards before applying the killing dagger. But he too often ruined his work with poor, hasty execution at the end, threading easy shots long or into the net.

When the points were short, the Serb prevailed, winning 71 of 131 rallies of four shots or fewer; in mid-range exchanges he was better too, taking 31 of 45 points in rallies of between five and eight shots. It was when they really got stuck into the heavy work that Murray had some success, winning 44 of the nine-plus-shot rallies to 34.

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It was not enough. Nor was his second serve sufficiently sound to keep his opponent in check, bringing him only 14 of 41 points there, and a disastrous one in five in his fourth-set collapse.

So where to now for Murray? It is hardly disastrous losing a grand slam final in four sets against one of the best players of modern times.

He is down to play Rotterdam, which starts next week, but his commitment sounded vague. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought ahead of this event yet. I’ve spent like two and a half days at home in the last two and a half months, so I’m looking forward to getting back and spending a bit of time at home with my friends and family and my dogs and being away from the tennis court and the gym for a few days.”

Amélie Mauresmo, who has risen in everyone’s estimation as his coach, will not be with him through February, so he will step up his search for a new assistant coach to replace Dani Vallverdu, who joined Tomas Berdych after their split in November.

“I’ll definitely have a think about it because I don’t want to go the whole month not seeing anyone. But it’s about getting the right person rather than rushing and making a bad decision. I’ll try and find the right person to do it with my team and chat to them a bit about it, then speak to some people.”

Given that one of the reasons Vallverdu and Murray’s former conditioner, Jez Green, were briefly miffed about Mauresmo’s arrival was that they were not consulted, that is probably not a bad idea.